Overview
The Uzbek Agency for Technical Regulation (ATR) under the Ministry of Investments, Industry, and Trade of the Republic of Uzbekistan was established on June 2, 2021, under the Uzbekistan Agency for Standardization, Metrology and Certification (UzStandart). The Cabinet of Ministers approved the Agency’s official responsibilities and work regulations on March 11, 2022. The new edition of the Law “On technical regulation” was adopted on February 27, 2023.
Standards for imported goods are subject to state registration through branches of ATR. A new edition of the Law “On standardization” was adopted on November 3, 2022. The national system includes 97 groups of standards and 52 groups of technical guidelines. Most of them are still based on outdated Soviet-era methodology, but the country is in the process of transition to international methods, such as Global G.A.P. and ORGANIC.
Standards
The Uzbek Agency for Technical Regulation is responsible for certification and standardization policy. According to Uzbekistan’s legislation, the following standard normative documents are applied in the country:
• International (interstate, regional) standards
• Uzbekistan’s national standards
• Standards of the enterprise
• National standards of foreign countries.
Foreign entities that do not have a manufacturing presence cannot participate in national standards development.
Testing, Inspection and Certification
By law, Uzbekistani officials may apply nine certification procedures:
• Procedures 1 – 5 include testing of standard samples in an accredited laboratory (AL)
• Procedures 3 – 5 also include inspection of production
• Procedure 6 is based on the assessment of the quality management system
• Procedure 7 tests pack samples in the AL
• Procedure 8 tests each sample product in the AL
• Procedure 9 reviews the declaration.
Procedures 3 and 7 are the most applicable in Uzbekistan. After testing, an accredited body issues a certificate of conformity for a period of up to three years.
Publication of Technical Regulations
ATR publishes technical regulations and the list of proposed technical regulations on its website. The agency welcomes comments on proposed regulations at tr@standart.uz and tr1@standart.uz within a two-week period after their publication, though a deadline is not always specified. Information on the technical regulations development program for 2019-2021 is given in the agency’s website. The agency has not published any updates to its technical regulations’ development program since 2021, explaining that implementation of the previous program had not yet been completed. Regulations on the safety of medical devices and equipment may affect this category of products. To facilitate further growth of trade with member countries of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), in 2021 Uzbekistan announced plans to unify its regulations with the main body of the technical regulations in force in the EAEU space: accordingly, work on the harmonization of 22 regulations is being completed; another 26 regulations will be brought in line with the EAEU standards.
Contact Information
Ministry of Investments, Industry and Trade
Tax Committee under the Ministry of Economy and Finance
Uzbek Agency for Technical Regulation
Customs Committee under the Ministry of Economy and Finance
Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Uzbekistan
American-Uzbekistan Chamber of Commerce
Use ePing to review proposed technical regulations and conformity assessment procedures.
The ePing SPS&TBT platform (https://epingalert.org/), or “ePing”, provides access to notifications made by World Trade Organization (WTO) Members under the Agreements on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS) and Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT), distributed by the WTO from January 16, 1995 to present. ePing is available to all stakeholders free of charge and does not require registration unless the user wishes to receive customized e-mail alerts. Use it to browse notifications on past as well as new draft and updated product regulations, food safety and animal and plant health standards and regulations, find information on trade concerns discussed in the WTO SPS and TBT Committees, locate information on SPS/TBT Enquiry Points and notification authorities, and to follow and review current and past notifications concerning regulatory actions on products, packaging, labeling, food safety and animal and plant health measures in markets of interest.
Per obligation under the TBT Agreement, each WTO Member operates a national TBT (and an SPS) Enquiry Point. National TBT Enquiry Points are authorized to accept comments and official communications from other national TBT Enquiry Points, which are NOT part of the WTO or the WTO Secretariat. All comment submissions from U.S. stakeholders, including businesses, trade associations, U.S domiciled standards development organizations and conformity assessment bodies, consumers, or U.S. government agencies on notifications to the WTO TBT Committee should be sent directly to the USA WTO TBT Inquiry Point. Refer to the comment guidance at https://tsapps.nist.gov/notifyus/data/guidance/guidance.cfm for further information. This guidance is provided to assist U.S. stakeholders in the preparation and submission of comments in response to notifications of proposed foreign technical regulations and conformity assessment procedures.